For over 100 years Pine Mountain has been focused on enriching lives and connecting people through Appalachian place-based education for all ages.
An in-depth digital look at the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive. The collections include photographs, documents, biographies, books, objects, videos, and other materials that describe the community and the rural settlement school from its beginnings in 1913 to the present day. Many documents are available in FULL TEXT. Work is ongoing.
ABOUT the Archive
INDEX TO SERIES AND GUIDES
FULL INDEX TO COLLECTIONS
Now over 2,000 pages of local and regional history and biographies.
OUR VISION
The Vision of the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive is to provide a voice that will encourage transformations in our relationship to the cultures of the Appalachian region through access to a unique and extensive body of material. Pine Mountain is one of the earliest rural settlement schools within the Appalachian region. The Rural Settlement School Movement and its impact on the people of Eastern Kentucky and the Southern Appalachians is a story that has sometimes been misrepresented, romanticized, or only partially understood and described. We envision an accessible, deep, vibrant, and vital resource that will encourage exploration and collaborative dialogue about the hidden and sometimes contested history of rural settlement schools within the Appalachian dialog. We envision broader dissemination of research materials across all public, private, and federal sectors interested in Appalachian cultures and lives. more …
OUR ARCHIVAL MISSION
The Pine Mountain Settlement School archival mission supports the institutional mission and its strategic planning goals. Our institutional mission continues a long 108-year history of evolving educational and social enrichment programs centered on the local community and beyond. Once a boarding school with a progressive educational curriculum, Pine Mountain Settlement School’s recent educational programming has moved away from residential education to multi-faceted offerings of short-term environmental, cultural, medical, social, agricultural, and arts and crafts programs and workshops for all ages. But, the archive has not moved away from, nor will it move away from, a commitment to Pine Mountain as place and people. more …
To access the Archive go to INDEX TO COLLECTIONS (also at the top of the page) or use the Search Box TO SEARCH FOR SPECIFIC TOPICS.
THINKING OF VISITING PINE MOUNTAIN?
To learn more about the School’s current workshops, community interaction, annual events, and other activities, go to PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL MAIN PAGE. There, you will find information about lodging, donating to the School and visiting the campus.
We follow COVID guidelines. Consult the following for current information regarding Kentucky COVID regulations and guidelines:
https://govstatus.egov.com/kycovid19 https://governor.ky.gov/covid19
ARCHIVE WHAT’S NEW AND OLD!
OCTOBER 2021
SHEEP SHEARING AND CECIL SHARP
(Say that fast!)
Kingman Album. Woman surrounded by sheep. PMSS 1920s. [kingman_023b]
It is not likely that Cecil Sharp (1859-1924), the British musicologist, ever sheared a sheep. But, he was, in any case, a close observer of the ruminants and probably an even closer critic of their bleats and baahs! Nonetheless, what Cecil Sharp has left to the history of sheep is a unique auditory trail that helps to re-trace the prevalence of sheep within the rich agrarian history of Great Britain and in the American Appalachian mountains.
Read more about this ballad collector and his capture of the rhythms of shearing …
SEPTEMBER 2021
In Memoriam: JACK CORNETT (c.1942- 2021)
At the end of September (Sept. 26, 2021) Linda McIntyre, notified us of the passing of JACK CORNETT, following a prolonged illness. Jack was a student in the Community School and lived with Emily and Columbus Creech. He went on to attend Red Bird Mission School in nearby Bell County. He married Juanita Scearce, who was also a student in the Community School and who attended Red Bird. Juanita was one of the oldest of the Frank Scearce children who lived at Incline, near the School. Juanita preceded Jack in death. The couple lived in Tampa, Florida, where Jack worked for a trucking company. His full biography is pending.
Jack is shown here with his mother, Audrey McIntyre, and his son in an early photograph. (To see additional photographs go to the biography for JACK CORNETT.) Linda McIntyre is the donor of the large JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH Family Collection recently added to the PMSS COLLECTIONS.
175 “Audrey McIntyre, Jack Cornett.” [creech_columbus_175]
In Memoriam: RAY BIRD
(December 30, 1932 – August 26, 2021)
Ray Bird at the 2013 Centennial celebration. He was a former student who worked in print shop with Fred B. Burkhard. [burkhard_centennial_043.jpg]
RAY BIRD was president of the Class of 1949, the last class to graduate during the PMSS Boarding School era. In later years, he served on the PMSS Advisory Board and was a longtime member of the Pine Mountain Association of Alumni and Friends. Seen here at the 100th year Celebration of PMSS. [burkhard_ centennial_043.jpg]
Ray was a friend of many and a close follower of the history and life of the PMSS boarding school. His love of the School can be traced to the life-long friendships he made at PMSS and to the many hours that he gave back to this institution. While Pine Mountain thanks Ray for his service and celebrates a life well-lived, his presence and his animated stories will be sorely missed by many.
HILDA CONN
“For two years [I] was away from civilization. The lack of city attractions [at PMSS] … will not worry me.”
[Excerpt from Hilda Conn’s application for a Pine Mountain Settlement School position, August 27, 1929.
HILDA CONN, (shown on left in photograph) was a secretary and bookkeeper in the PMSS Office from 1929 until 1931. Her biography and images of her correspondence were recently added to the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections website.
See the WHAT’S NEW! ARCHIVE for previously featured collections,
NOW IN A NEW EASIER-TO-NAVIGATE FORMAT. This archived list includes links to
FAMILIES IN PINE MOUNTAIN VALLEY COMMUNITY (See June and November 2018).
LATEST DIGITAL ADDITIONS
OCTOBER 2021
10/8 ESTHER EPSTEIN Staff – Biography of a music teacher at PMSS from 1930 until 1932. Also included are images of her correspondence with PMSS staff and a list of the contents of the letters.
10/4 JACK CORNETT Student – Biography and images of a PMSS Community School student in the 1950s, who lived with his aunt and uncle, Emily Hill Creech and James Columbus Creech. His mother was Audrey McIntire. (See IN MEMORIAM above.)
10/3 WATSON “BUSTER” McINTYRE Student – Biography and images of a student at PMSS from 1936 until he left for the U.S. Navy in 1942. His aunt was Emily Hill Creech who married James Columbus, the son of Sally and William Creech. He had two sisters, Audrey and Peggy McIntire. Also, WATSON “BUSTER” McINTYRE Student Record (SOME IMAGES ARE RESTRICTED) (Note: The last names of the family members vary in the Creech Family collection of letters, documents, and photographs as “McIntire” or “McIntyre.” Buster appears to have preferred the latter spelling.)
10/3 AUDREY McINTIRE Student – Biography and images of a PMSS student (1933-1937). She was Peggy and Buster’s sister. Also, AUDREY McINTIRE Student Record (SOME IMAGES ARE RESTRICTED)
10/3 PEGGY McINTIRE Student – Biography and images of a PMSS student (1933-1937) She was Audrey and Buster’s sister. Also, PEGGY McINTIRE Student Record (SOME IMAGES ARE RESTRICTED)
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2021
9/30 RAY BIRD, Student, Advisory – Biography of a PMSS supporter for many years, who was a 1949 graduate of the boarding school, an Advisory Board Chair in 1996-1997, and a member of the Pine Mountain Association of Alumni and Friends.
9/24 OMER LEWIS Student Staff and Community – Omer Lewis was a Pine Mountain Settlement School student in the 1930s who later became a longtime employee at the School, serving from 1951 until 1984. His mother, Arwilla (Creech) Lewis, was the granddaughter of William and Sally (Dixon) Creech.
9/23 HILDA CONN Staff – Biography and images of Hilda Conn, who was a secretary and bookkeeper in the PMSS Office from 1929 until 1931.
9/23 HILDA CONN Correspondence – Images and contents of her application to PMSS and correspondence with PMSS staff in 1929, 1930, and 1932. (Some images are RESTRICTED)
9/9 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1920 [update] – One of a series of pages displaying images of the letters of Mary Rockwell Hook, a PMSS trustee, donor, and the primary architect of several early PMSS buildings. A list of contents has been added to the 1920 page describing letters mostly from Katherine Pettit and Ethel de Long Zande. The co-directors provide Mary Rockwell with updates concerning PMSS staff and activities. See also the biography of Mary Rockwell Hook and a GUIDE to her correspondence. Lists of contents have also been added to the following pages:
9/23 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1924
9/24 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1927 Box 17:1-55
9/24 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1932 Box 18:2-26
9/24 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1933 Box 18: 2-33
9/25 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1934 Box 18: 2-40
9/25 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1935 Box 18: 2-47
9/25 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1936 Box 18: 2-51
9/30 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1937 Box 18: 2-59
10/2 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1938 Box 18: 2-66
10/5 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1941 Box 19: 3-05
10/10 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1942-43 Box 19: 3-14
10/16 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1944 Box 19: 3-27
10/18 MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1947 Box 19: 3-54
9/4 JESS AND SALLIE CORNETT Staff and Community – Biography of Jess Cornett, the night watchman and groundskeeper at PMSS in the 1940s and 1950s; maintenance in the 1970s. His wife, Sallie (Wilder) Cornett was PMSS laundress in the 1940s and relief housemother at Big Log in 1941, 1942, and 1943.
9/4 JESS AND SALLIE CORNETT Correspondence – Contracts and letters from PMSS administration to Jess and Sallie Cornett, 1940 through 1950.
AUGUST 2021
8/15 EDUCATION Antioch College Cooperative Education at PMSS [revision]
EDUCATION Consumer Cooperative Curriculum [revision]
8/6 JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Photographs 100-178 (Set 1)
JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Photographs 200-299 (Set 2)
JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Photographs 300-399 (Set 3)
JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Photographs 400-499 (Set 4)
JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Photographs 500-599 (Set 5)
JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Photographs 600-699 (Set 6) IN PROGRESS
JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Memorabilia
*JAMES COLUMBUS AND EMILY HILL CREECH FAMILY Letters and Documents
Early photographs, memorabilia, documents, and letters belonging to the extended family of Columbus and Emily Creech who lived in the Pine Mountain Community. Each set consists of approximately 100 items. Digitization of the Creech Family collection of photographs, as well as letters, documents, and memorabilia, is ongoing. (*”Letters and Documents” are password protected.)
Go to ARCHIVE LATEST DIGITAL ADDITIONS for previous lists.
COMMENTS and CONTACT
Comments and feedback regarding the material on this website or on the institutional history are welcomed. Comments directly on the website are not enabled.
Please contact office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com or (606) 558-3571 with your inquiries and comments. We welcome your identification of people and activities on our site and, particularly, corrections to the record. Please see OUR PRIVACY POLICY and contact our office if you believe we have violated your rights to privacy.
ARCHIVE Mission Statement (extended)
ARCHIVE Donations
ORAL HISTORY RELEASE AGREEMENT
ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION – PRINCIPLES AND BEST PRACTICES
ABOUT OCR TEXT
Many of the texts included in this site have been automatically generated using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. In some cases, these texts have not been manually reviewed or corrected.
OCR enables searching of large quantities of full-text data, but it is not 100% accurate. The level of accuracy depends on the print quality of the original publication and its condition at the time of microfilming. Publications with poor quality paper, small print, mixed fonts, multiple column layouts or damaged pages may have poor OCR accuracy.
CITATION OF MATERIALS
Any PUBLIC use of material must properly cite Pine Mountain Settlement School in the following manner: “[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. [date], Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. [date accessed]
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIVACY
The manuscript collections and archival records in the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections may contain sensitive and/or confidential information derived from historical archives that may be protected under federal and state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers who wish to publish and users who may share material from the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections are advised by this notice that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in some collections within the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g. may be a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person for which Pine Mountain Settlement School assumes no responsibility.
If you believe that your privacy rights have been invaded please notify the following: office@
See INDEX TO COLLECTIONS for an overview of collections and series.